American Civil War Biographies | John Brown Biography

Born 1800
Torrington, Connecticut
Died December 2, 1859
Charlestown, Virginia

Radical abolitionist
Led an unsuccessful attempt to ignite
a slave uprising in the South in 1859

John Brown was a highly controversial member of the movement to abolish (put an end to) slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. He believed that slavery was morally wrong and committed himself to doing anything in his power to destroy it. "Slavery throughout its entire existence in the United States is none other than a mad, barbarous [cruel], unprovoked, and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens upon another portion, in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence," he stated.

As Brown grew more and more furious about slavery, he came to believe that violence was both necessary and justified in...